[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 184 (Monday, November 18, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6616-S6617]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              IMPEACHMENT

  Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, our Republican friends have spent the 
past several weeks accusing Democrats of being unable to work on 
serious issues to help the American people because the impeachment 
inquiry into President Trump is such a distraction. The Republican 
leader has repeated this absurd claim on the Senate floor, and the 
President's reelection campaign is now running ads saying Democrats 
refuse to work on infrastructure or healthcare or drugs because of 
impeachment. These ads turn truth inside out. Simply put, these ads are 
a lie.
  Senate Democrats put together a trillion-dollar infrastructure plan 
that would create 15 million jobs. We did that 3 years ago. Instead of 
working with us on that goal, President Trump walked out of the meeting 
on infrastructure with Speaker Pelosi and me. We haven't heard a peep 
out of the administration since then. That was long before impeachment 
began. We haven't heard from the Republicans on what they want to do on 
healthcare. We haven't heard from the President on a proposal he sent 
us on drug prices. So who is holding things up?
  This Senate has been a legislative graveyard for months and months 
and months. It just amazes me the gall, the temerity that the President 
and our Republican friends have to say that Democrats, because of 
impeachment, are not moving forward. We have 218 bills that the House 
sent us. We haven't had one discussion here on impeachment. It has 
taken up no time.
  Leader McConnell, do you want to get things done? Put one of those 
bills on the floor. Let us have debate.
  Republican Senators, go to McConnell. Tell him you want to do some 
stuff on the floor; that you want to legislate.
  No, no, we hear silence--abject, shaky-knee silence--because our 
Republican friends, and I imagine the leader, are just afraid of 
President Trump. When he makes up these lies, they just go right along.
  Many Republicans have even complained that Leader McConnell has 
turned the Senate into a legislative graveyard. So the idea that the 
impeachment inquiry is preventing Congress from debating legislation on 
infrastructure or prescription drugs or healthcare or any other matter 
is completely absurd. Democrats are happy

[[Page S6617]]

and eager to work on those issues. Senate Democrats are waiting with 
bated breath for the Republican leader to put any of these bills on the 
floor or for any Republican to speak out and demand they go on the 
floor. The silence of our Republican colleagues indicates that they are 
going along with this strategy as well.
  We meet this week in the Senate, and the majority leader has, once 
again, scheduled no legislative business on the floor--none. We are not 
debating impeachment. We are not discussing impeachment. For 3 weeks in 
a row, there has been not one legislative piece, not one legislative 
bill. That is all the evidence one needs to know which party is 
blocking progress in the Chamber.
  The American people know it. When they are asked what they think of 
the Republicans in the Senate and the Republicans in Congress, the 
marks are very low. I imagine that is because they are getting nothing 
done.
  Concerning the impeachment inquiry itself, the public hearings last 
week have brought up many troubling allegations, including the 
startling revelation that Ambassador Gordon Sondland told another State 
Department official that the President had made clear that he cares 
more about Ukraine investigating the Bidens than about helping Ukraine 
itself. The revelation added to an already substantial body of evidence 
that the President may--may--have abused the powers of his public 
office for personal political gain. I say ``may'' because we haven't 
had the trial yet here in the Senate, should the House vote on articles 
of impeachment.
  The President is now saying all this stuff is false; that all these 
witnesses are not telling the truth.
  If the President believes that these witnesses are false and that the 
facts that are coming out of the Senate impeachment hearings are false, 
he should testify under oath in the House. If he wishes to present 
evidence to the contrary, he should do it not by tweet but by testimony 
under oath.
  I wholeheartedly agree with Speaker Pelosi's invitation to President 
Trump yesterday to testify in the House impeachment inquiry--not by 
tweeting and not by sending a note but by coming forward in person 
under oath, and let's see what the President rejects. If the President 
doesn't agree with what he has heard in public hearings and he has 
evidence he would like to present, he can come to the committee and 
testify and answer questions under oath.
  He should allow his advisers, who are in fact witnesses in these 
matters, to testify under oath as well. The President shouldn't spread 
falsehoods about the witnesses on Twitter. He should come to Congress 
and make his case. He should free up Pompeo and Mulvaney and all the 
others who might have real knowledge and let them testify.
  The President and his allies in Congress criticized the testimony for 
being secondhand in nature, while at the same time blocking those 
individuals with firsthand knowledge from testifying. Let's end that 
particular hypocrisy.
  President Trump, come testify. Allow your advisers to testify. If you 
refuse to come before the committee after Speaker Pelosi's invitation 
and if you don't let the people around you come before the committee, 
one question will loom before the American people: What is President 
Trump hiding, and why is he personally afraid to confront the facts?
  Before I yield the floor, I will address a tragic pattern that has 
emerged in this Trump Presidency that is different from the previous 
one but very troubling. Too often--it seems almost weekly--President 
Trump announces that he is considering or even supporting a policy on 
which there is some bipartisan agreement and then backs off that 
position a few days, a few weeks, or a few months later. If there is an 
immediate issue, President Trump seems almost afraid not to go along 
with what the public wants, but because his integrity is so minimal, he 
must not really mean it because he just reverses himself.
  After the mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton this summer, President 
Trump said he was considering ``very strong background checks'' as a 
response to the violence. Leader McConnell echoed him. He said that a 
debate on gun violence would be front and center in the Senate in 
September.
  Now 3 months later, after another high school shooting in Santa 
Clarita, CA, another mass shooting at a neighborhood party in Fresno, 
and another shooting at a Walmart in Oklahoma as recently as this 
morning, it has become painfully clear that President Trump and Leader 
McConnell caved to the corrupt leadership of the NRA once again and 
will not move legislation to address gun violence. President Trump 
would rather protect his political interests than protect American 
lives.
  Gun violence isn't the only issue where President Trump has promised 
bold action, only to back off. We heard a new one this morning. Recent 
reports suggest the President is now wavering on his promise to ban 
flavored e-cigarettes, which are marketed toward our children. Once 
again the reporting says that the President backed off after hearing 
from industry lobbyists that the ban might hurt the President 
politically.
  It is the same pattern. The President promises to do something about 
a serious issue--in some cases, an issue that threatens the lives of 
our children--and then backs off and reverses himself once the special 
interests weigh in.
  President Trump, it is not too late. Do what you said you were going 
to do. It is not that hard. Ban these flavored e-cigarettes. When e-
cigarettes are marketed as Gummy Bear or Captain Crunch, they are not 
aimed at adults; they are aimed at getting kids in high school and 
junior high school--maybe even younger--to start vaping, which will 
ultimately harm them.
  Another example occurred yesterday and again today. The Trump 
administration announced that it would extend a temporary license 
granted to Huawei, a Chinese telecom giant that our intelligence and 
defense agencies have deemed a national security threat. Once again 
President Trump failed to match his tough talk with appropriate action. 
If President Trump and his Commerce Department agree that Huawei is a 
national security threat, they ought to start acting like it. Every 
time President Trump goes easy on Huawei, the Chinese Communist Party 
takes that as a signal that they can hurt American jobs and threaten 
our security without repercussion.
  I would urge the President to read an editorial by, I believe it is 
the Secretary of the Air Force in today's Wall Street Journal--I read 
it this afternoon--that says what the security threat of allowing 
Huawei into this country would be to our Armed Forces, to our military 
men and women, and to our country as a whole.
  I publicly praise the President and his administration when they have 
done the right thing. I praised the Trump administration when it 
announced it was going to ban flavored e-cigarettes. I praised the 
administration when it announced it was going to be tough on Huawei. 
But announcements don't make the grade. When you back off, when you 
waver, when you stammer, all these announcements mean nothing. And the 
American people do remember it. There is an accounting.
  Like on the issue of background checks and gun safety, you just can't 
believe the President and his administration when they say they are 
going to do something. So many times when the President says he is 
considering some strong, bipartisan action, he backs off, usually at 
the behest of lobbyists or some special interests. On these issues and 
several others, the President has shown a profound lack of political 
courage. It is one of the many reasons why the President and this 
Republican Senate, which shivers in obeisance to him, have accomplished 
so little for the American people.
  I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Boozman). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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